


What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time?

by KeeperofSeeds



Series: femslashficlets - shakespeare prompt challenge [4]
Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Blanket Permission, Canonical Character Death, Community: femslashficlets, F/F, Female Character of Color, Femslash, Ficlet, Game Spoilers, Gen, Minor Character Death, POV Female Character, Podfic Welcome, Spoilers, Wordcount: 100-1.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-16
Updated: 2017-05-16
Packaged: 2018-10-31 23:40:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10909836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeeperofSeeds/pseuds/KeeperofSeeds
Summary: At the end, Samina remembers happier times with Elisabet[can't say anything more without SPOILERS for a big moment in the game. Enter at your own risk & heed the tags]





	What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time?

**Author's Note:**

> prompt #4 Hell is empty and all the devils are here - The Tempest

It feels like a punch in the gut. She's heard the expression before but never felt it more clearly. All their work…gone. All that knowledge, erased. All for one mad man's delusions and fears. Ted has damned them all. Again.

She can't even bring herself to cry. Just shudders and struggles to breathe. She can't believe it. It can't  _all_  be gone. He can't have overridden  _all_  the backups. Ted continues his crazed monologue and she feels hands on her shoulder, an attempt at comfort in the face of unimaginable betrayal, but she barely notices it.

She must be in shock. Mind unable to deal with the reality of failure. Her mind's retreated back into the past. She's remembering all the late nights, the long hours. The moments of joy in between the stress and work and the countdown to despair. She remembers Elisabet's smile at the first successful testing of Apollo. The feel of their fingers twining together. Kissing away the furrow in her forehead after yet another set of stressful meetings and cross country plane trips. The joyful kisses Elisabet had showered her with after Gaia's first display of empathy.

How did it all come to this?

Ted. It's his fault they're here. His robots.  _His_  hubris.

Now he's doing it again. Ruining it all.  

Ted does something, and the warning comes. The electronic voice rings out just before the hiss of air signaling decompression hits.  _I'm so sorry_  she thinks even as she gasps at vanishing air.

She isn't sure if she's apologizing to the ghost of Elisabet, or to the future generations who will miss out on everything they worked so hard to bring them. They should have known better,  _she_  should have known better.

History always repeats itself.

_I'm sorry._

**Author's Note:**

> Me for the last 1/3 of the game, probably channeling Elisabet Sobek: DAMN IT TED! You fucked up again! 
> 
> Shout out to DominicKnight and their fanfic Network for being the first fic I read with Elisabet and Samina. It definitely contributed to me thinking about their friendship together and then I decided, what the hell, I could ship that. And here we are. 
> 
> Title is also shamelessly snagged from the Tempest. Seemed appropriate as Samina is spending her last moments looking back to and remembering the happier moments in the past.


End file.
